OUR STORY
Built through community relationships.
RISE Projects was established in 2016 with a simple belief: local communities should have access to opportunities, support and spaces where people feel listened to and valued.
What began as grassroots community work has developed through years of relationships with residents, volunteers, local organisations and public services.
As the needs we encountered changed, RISE changed too. Our work broadened beyond individual activities into a wider range of community programmes, practical support, partnership work and local engagement.
One chapter at a time.
RISE has grown by responding to what we hear from residents and building on the relationships, experience and partnerships developed along the way.
Starting at grassroots level.
RISE Projects began with a focus on creating opportunities and support for local people, particularly young people and communities that were not always being reached effectively by existing services.
From the beginning, relationships and trust were central. Rather than starting with a fixed model, RISE developed its work through direct contact with the community.
Listening led us into new areas of work.
As more residents became involved, the issues people brought to RISE became broader. Conversations about activities often opened into conversations about health, employment, family life, housing and access to services.
Our work developed in response. RISE began creating programmes and spaces for different parts of the community, while helping residents navigate wider support.
Building stronger connections with services.
Community relationships became increasingly important to organisations seeking to work more effectively with local residents.
RISE developed partnerships across health, local government, the voluntary sector and other community organisations, helping bring information, services and opportunities closer to the people they were intended to reach.
Partnership working remains a central part of how RISE operates today.
Creating a permanent place for community connection.
The development of the RISE Hub at Pretoria Road marked an important step in the organisation's growth.
Having a community base allows different parts of our work to come together in one place: activities, advice, health and wellbeing, employment support, youth work, meetings, workshops and partner services.
The Hub is helping RISE move from delivering individual programmes towards becoming a stronger piece of local community infrastructure.
Bringing our work together.
Today, RISE works across different areas of community life while keeping the same principle that has shaped the organisation from the beginning: staying close to residents and responding practically to local needs.
Our programmes are increasingly connected so that someone coming to RISE for one reason can discover wider support, activities and opportunities.
Five areas. One connected organisation.
Our work now sits across five areas that reflect the different ways residents engage with RISE.
Youth
Activities, sport, support, development and opportunities for young people.
Health & Wellbeing
Community-based activities and partnerships supporting physical and emotional wellbeing.
Families & Community
Support, spaces and activities that strengthen families and community connections.
Housing & Advice
Practical advice, drop-ins, information, referrals and help navigating services.
Opportunities
Employment, enterprise, volunteering, skills and routes into new opportunities.
A home for the next stage of our story.
The RISE Hub gives the organisation something it did not have when the journey began in 2016: a permanent community space from which relationships, programmes and partnerships can grow.
Our aim is for it to be a place where residents can walk through the door for one reason and leave connected to something else that may help them move forward.
EXPLORE THE RISE HUBA place where community activity, support and opportunity can come together.
BACKGROUND
It all started in 2016…
National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2018
RISE Projects was founded in 2016 after a group of concerned young Somali people in Haringey got together to find solutions to some of the issues plighting the community. Having looked around, we felt there were no responsive organisations working to support young Somali people in Haringey and started organising activities and events for disenfranchised and alienated youth to learn new skills, take part in organised activities and become empowered through participation, community activism and engagement.
Winners at Haringey Impact Awards 2018
Our organisation was founded to improve young people’s life chances, amid existing challenges. Haringey is a borough with stark social divide and high social inequalities, and the vast majority of our service users live in the east of the borough, in some of the most deprived wards in the whole of the UK. Many of the young people we engage and support have had adverse childhood experiences, have suffered some trauma and experience a ladder of disadvantage being Muslim, Black and refugees or children of immigrants. All these dimensions of difference has created a community which faces challenging obstacles to improving their life outcomes, who face neglect, experience a lack of support from service users and who are not engaged in decisions that impact on their lives, despite living and working in the borough.
RISE Your Net-worth Careers Event July 2019
Over the past three years since its founding, RISE Projects has worked to improve the lived experiences of the Somali community in Haringey and beyond. Creating much needed service provisions for the community and working to bridge the gaps, where possible. We continue to work with young people, families and our partners and service providers to ensure that the Somali community has a voice, is represented and empowered.